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Edvard Munch
In an introductory essay & in commentaries that accompany the forty colorplates in the book, Thomas M. Messer, Director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation in New York, traces Munch's growth as an artist, placing him in the context of his times. He introduces the reader to the family scenes & familiar places that haunt Munch's art, & to the wider relationships-with writers, poets & patrons that nurtured Munch & sustained him in difficult times.
- GenresArt
166 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1973
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About the author
Thomas M. Messer
79 booksThomas Maria Messer was the director of the The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, Italy, for 27 years, a longer tenure than any other director of a major New York City arts institution.
Born and raised in Czechoslovakia, Messer became a U.S. citizen in 1944 and served in the U.S. Army in World War II. He earned a master's degree in art history and museology from Harvard University. From 1947 to 1961, he worked in a series of art and museum administration positions, the last of which was director of the Boston Institute of Contemporary Art. In 1961, he became director of the Guggenheim Museum in New York. There, he was able to establish the usefulness of the spiral-shaped Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Guggenheim as a venue for the display of art, despite the doubts of critics and artists. Messer was instrumental in expanding the museum's collection during his tenure, especially by persuading Peggy Guggenheim to donate her collection to the Guggenheim Foundation. He retired in 1988 to take up freelance curating, teaching, writing, lecturing.
Born and raised in Czechoslovakia, Messer became a U.S. citizen in 1944 and served in the U.S. Army in World War II. He earned a master's degree in art history and museology from Harvard University. From 1947 to 1961, he worked in a series of art and museum administration positions, the last of which was director of the Boston Institute of Contemporary Art. In 1961, he became director of the Guggenheim Museum in New York. There, he was able to establish the usefulness of the spiral-shaped Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Guggenheim as a venue for the display of art, despite the doubts of critics and artists. Messer was instrumental in expanding the museum's collection during his tenure, especially by persuading Peggy Guggenheim to donate her collection to the Guggenheim Foundation. He retired in 1988 to take up freelance curating, teaching, writing, lecturing.
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February 19, 2014
Being Norwegian, I'd known a bit about Munch since childhood, by osmosis as it were. There were Munch graphics all about, one of his versions of the Madonna-as-Vampire haunting the little me a bit. Later, in seminary in New York, I saw a Norwegian film about the artist down in the East Village. Finally, after seminary, I travelled to visit family in Oslo and spent an afternoon by myself in the Munch Museum there.
I picked this book up while back in Chicago a few years later. For me, it was a major, expensive purchase, but the plates were good and there was some discount. Still, it was irrational, an uncharacteristic expression of nationalism perhaps.
Name famous Norwegian artists, why don't you? Munch may stand alone as of global importance. Yet, if you go to the National Gallery in Oslo you'll see lots of art, much of it Norwegian. My stepbrother took us there back in 1984. An architect himself, he knew something of art and was able to point out several works which were by ancestors of myself, ancestors--barring great grand aunt Gerda, whom I'd me--about whom I knew next to nothing. Perhaps there was something even more primitive, something clannish, in my purchase of the Munch book.
I picked this book up while back in Chicago a few years later. For me, it was a major, expensive purchase, but the plates were good and there was some discount. Still, it was irrational, an uncharacteristic expression of nationalism perhaps.
Name famous Norwegian artists, why don't you? Munch may stand alone as of global importance. Yet, if you go to the National Gallery in Oslo you'll see lots of art, much of it Norwegian. My stepbrother took us there back in 1984. An architect himself, he knew something of art and was able to point out several works which were by ancestors of myself, ancestors--barring great grand aunt Gerda, whom I'd me--about whom I knew next to nothing. Perhaps there was something even more primitive, something clannish, in my purchase of the Munch book.
Displaying 1 of 1 review